AstraZeneca Immunotherapy offers new hope for patients with stage III locally advanced lung cancer 

During the Presidential Symposium In the ASCO 2017 (9 September 2017) , Dr Luis Paz-Ares from Hospital Universitario 12 de Octobre, Madrid, Spain presented a potentially practice-changing data from the phase III Pacific study up to 12-month immunotherapy with durvalumab (PDL-1 inhibitor).  In 709 patients with locally advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without progression after platinum-based treatment and radioterpy, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 16.8 months with durvalumab vs 5.8 months with placebo . Adverse events were comparable in both arms. Although overall survival data is still immature, these impressive results must surely prefigure maintenance immunotherapy becoming part of the standard practice in locally advanced NSCLC. The Pacific study is was one the largest studies ever conducted in stage III NSCLC. QuinitlesIMS was the CRO that run the trial.